THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES LA DAI THANH DISCOURSE ANALYSIS: LEXICAL CHARACTERISTICS IN SOME ENGLISH SONG LYRICS TO EXPRESS LOVE M.A THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 THAI NGUYEN - 2022 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES LA DAI THANH DISCOURSE ANALYSIS: LEXICAL CHARACTERISTICS IN SOME ENGLISH SONG LYRICS TO EXPRESS LOVE M.A THESIS (APPLICATION ORIENTATION) Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 Supervisor: Cao Duy Trinh, Ph.D THAI NGUYEN - 2022 ĐẠI HỌC THÁI NGUYÊN TRƯỜNG NGOẠI NGỮ LÃ ĐẠI THÀNH Phân tích diễn ngôn: Những đặc điểm về mặt từ vựng thể hiện tình yêu trong các bản tình ca tiếng Anh LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ (Định hướng ứng dụng) Ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh Mã số: 8220201 Cán bộ hướng dẫn: TS. Cao Duy Trinh THÁI NGUYÊN - 2022 ABSTRACT There are many ways to send a message of sentiment not only through the conversation directly to the person, such as electronic media or mass media. The electronic media is the media that commonly used in modern era, for example e- book, article on the internet, chatting and short message on the telephone. The massmedia is the media that can be ersused by local people.
It is still traditional way such as letter, poet, song lyrics, newspaper and magazine. In this research, the researcher takes the song lyric as the subject of the research. Through the lyric the authors tell the feeling, idea, and opinion about love. The listener usually can take the value and message from authors by understanding the lyrics.
Therefore, the researcher takes the lyric as the subject of the research. The aim of the research is to get clearly about the detailed explanation about the analysis approach 7 love songs’ lyrics throughout many eras of music history. The researcher understand the meaning of the lyrics based on Pragmatics as the research framework. i DECLARATION I declare that this research report entitled “DISCOURSE ANALYSIS: LEXICAL CHARACTERISTICS IN SOME ENGLISH SONG LYRIC TO EXPRESS LOVE” has been composed by myself and described my own work unless otherwise acknowledged in the text.
I confirm that this work is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of master at School of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen University. This work has not been and will not be submitted for any other degree at any other higher education institution. Approved by supervisor Hai Phong, 2022 Student Dr. Cao Duy Trinh La Dai Thanh ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Proudly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mr.
Cao Duy Trinh for all of his endless blessings, supports and mercies, so I finally can finish this thesis. It is only for him I give all of my hopes and wishes. Also, I would like to thank the post-graduate training department of School of Foreign Languages - TNU, teachers in the school administration, as well as my family for their warm encouragement and support. Last but not least, I do hope this research will give many advantages to all of people who much concern in English Language.
Hai Phong, 2022 Student La Dai Thanh iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .2 Aims of study .3 Scope of the study .4 Significance of the study .5 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .1 Musical discourse as a topic of linguistic study .2 Definition of “Discourse” .3 Coherence in discourse .4 Cohesion in discourse .3 “Romance” in discourse .4 Discourse in lyrics for the songs .5 Functions of discourse.1 Language analysis methodology .35 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .1 Findings and recommendations.2 My Heart Will Go On .3 When A Man Loves A Woman .4 Way back into love .5 Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love for You .6 I will always love you .55 Speech acts categories .1 Lexical characteristics of love songs .2 Implication for teaching. I v CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter contains the Thesis’ Rationale, Aims of the study, Scope of the study and Significance of the study.1 Rationale While traditional linguistics was interested in analyzing single sentence structures, Zellig Harris published her research under the title "discourse analysis" (Harris, 1952).
Harris is interested in the distribution of linguistic elements in texts and the relationship between the text and its social context. Although Harris's discursive analysis is far from today's discursive analysis, authoritative is seen as a pioneer in this area. The appearance of semiotics and the French structural method in narrative analysis was also important in the early years for the development of discursive analysis. Unfortunately, often the author of a word does not explain to the reader which are used to denote word combinations made at their own discretion.
In this regard, word combinations must be used in place of formation, which is only completed in history to become a given language unit that the speaker had to accept as it was. When for the first time a certain native person invented a combination that is not in the vocabulary, it was an innovation that could not be called a word, that is, a component of the vocabulary. By the time it had been accepted into the verbal speech of native speakers to be included in the dictionary, then word formation became available onward. Most linguists respect native speakers' knowledge of their native language.
They know that it is impossible for a foreigner, even after studying for a lifetime, to know a foreign language like a native speaker unless he is a bilingual person. Perhaps because they have learned more relevant foreign letters than native speakers, they need to state their "unsatisfactory" native language uses. However, ideas are not just syntactic and semantic forms. The concept of pragmatics is something that comes from context, not from syntax and semantics 1 (Hatch, 1992).
In order to understand a text, it is necessary to understand the concept that the creator wants to express in a particular context and how that context affects what is mentioned. That means not only the shell of the language but also the situation in which the language is used needs to be taken into account. The situation here includes the person who created the text and who perceived the text, their relationship, the situation, and the time. Understanding the relationships between linguistic forms and the users of those linguistic forms helps us to understand the intended meaning, assumptions, purposes, and types of actions to be performed under the expression of user's language.
Equally important in helping to deeply understand and truly understand a text is to consider and learn how the text creator uses to organize what needs to represent to the subject. Additionally, readers or persons who receive the message need to understand the communicating context on the language form which is used by the text creator. Example: Studying the language used in a letter written to a stranger or a single word, we see a kind of formal, and cliché style in comparison to the style of a letter written to family or a close friend. Firstly, discourse is primarily concerned with the social interaction expressed through conversation, analyzed by the unit of meaning.
Second, discourse is a series of linguistic behaviors in the form of spoken or written. Discourse studies linguistic structures by inter - sentence - connectives (Rahman, 2015) and cohesion of linguistic structures at the level of mixed sentences. Third, discourse is used to study informational functions or communication purposes. According to Tadd Trimble and Trimble (1977), scientific discourse, including trade, has the characteristics of function of announcing, describing, defining and classifying; uses notification techniques based on temporal, spatial, and causal order.
According to those who hold the view of perception, a text does not contain a fixed idea but on the contrary, the communication of ideas is a three-way mutual process between ideas in the writer's head, where language used to express ideas of the text and concepts in the reader's mind. Of course, generally speaking, these concepts are related and the writer as well as the reader tries to keep their ideas as close together as possible. However, each reader will perceive a particular text and understand it differently because they rely 2 on organized arrangements of different schemas. Reading any context in form of written expression such as novel, song, or poem, therefore includes two important processes: the process of responding information from the book to the reader, that is, the language from the text and the process of bouncing from the top, that is, what comes from the human brain to read down the text.
They may include knowledge of a text topic, reading strategies, skills, and experience with a particular type of text. For example: The lack of background knowledge about the reader's culture or country of study can cause them to misunderstand and misinterpret information even though they know each word and structure in the text. The genre of unfamiliar text, the content is too difficult, or the lack of proper reading technique also hinders the reading process. Therefore, in order to fully understand a text, the reader also needs to understand all cultural elements, the country of study present in the text as well as have knowledge of the type of text and find a way to read effective context through different written means such as song lyrics, poem, and so on.
Contemporary musical discourse is of greatest interest in research because of the global status of the English language, which has been embraced as a modern lingua franca in the field of contemporary musical art, working across national boundaries and becoming profoundly multicultural and international. In all its complexity, musical discourse provides endless possibilities for multidimensional study, financial, cultural, psychological, visual, gestural, ceremonial, technical, historical and musicological integration. Until now, however, very little attention has been given to discourse theoretical investigations into the usage and social dimensions of global language in various musical discourse genres. Love is always a topic chosen by musicians in any stage of social life.
Maybe happy, maybe sad, but songs about love are always beautiful melodies with many moods and colors. Therefore, this thesis aims to address the field that was not explored in previous linguistic studies, focusing on components of musical discourse in mentioned love songs such as semiosis, social agents, social roles, social context and text, and their role in the analysis of musical discourse, in particular the paper 3 addresses the question of how the lexical characteristics in love songs can express love.2 Aims of study Research question: To express love, what are the lexical characteristics in some English song lyrics? In theory, the thesis hopes to contribute to clarify the concept of communication in general and in song lyrics in particular in which showcases some of the most common characteristics of language discourse. On the other hand, the thesis also pays more attention to the functions of discourse through the materials being examined: ideological functions, interpersonal functions and textual functions - issues that have been mentioned so far but has not been fully explained; thereby contributing to the completion of research results on communications, especially in song lyrics, in general and the social impact function of lyrics in resistance songs in particular. In practice, the dissertation's research results can contribute to solving many problems about using English and serve as the basis for compiling content, determining methods of teaching English for foreigners to learn English.
In particular, in the current trend of integration and globalization, the research results of the thesis also contribute significantly to improving the function of the use of lyrics when the composer composes new accompanied songs. messages you want to send to listeners; Since then, it is more convenient to communicate and demonstrate their communication purposes.3 Scope of the study In recent years, the direction of research on language has gained remarkable results, helping us to understand more deeply the nature of language as a tool for social and interpersonal interaction.